This garden

I went to a wonderful Relief Society meeting on Thursday. They did a performance of Women at the Well, which I have never seen, and had some amazing food. I'm glad my mom encouraged me to go because frankly I haven't been to an evening meeting in like two years. I was really enriched by the talents of the women in our ward. A woman from another ward did a beautiful dance to the song about the Savior walking to Calvary. Her body really portrayed the intense pain Mary must have felt as she watched her Son carry the cross. I was so moved by how our bodies store our pain, how it reacts and must experience that pain. I think there is a link between our bodies and our ability to feel. A necessary link that enables us to grow and experience things we could not without them. Grief and joy are both often just as excruciating. Sometimes I find myself clutching my chest with gratitude, the cries from that come from that are just as deep as those of sorrow. What a miracle that is!

Today, as I sung with the choir I was moved again. This time by our cantata. One of the songs is called This Garden is a Healing Place. It is about Gestemane. The place the Savior suffered for the sins of the world. The song talks about how peaceful the place is. How quiet and beautiful it is. For some reason I cannot make it through this song. I can imagine the place. Not as a dark and stormy place of suffering (as in our common pictures) but as a place of healing and beauty. The most beautiful gift of all time was given in that garden. A place that would be renewed each spring. A place that would have life in the trees and birds and animals that live there. I'm so grateful for that Atonement. The garden, the hill and the tomb. Those things are the point from which all good in my life flows and without Him I would be utterly lost to my own selfish, close minded desires. What an unspeakable gift.